Who Was that Masked Wise Economist?
Megan McArdle:
What Did the American Taxpayer Get for its Billions? - Megan McArdle: A fellow journalist emails: "I badly want someone to explain to me whether the taxpayer realizes any benefits from BoA, Citi, Goldman, etc.'s profits. Or was this just a massive "Thanks for nothing, Tim" moment?" Hard to say. On the one hand, as a wise economist said to me last fall, "You can't bail out the financial system without bailing out those who are long financial assets". In other words, banks and bankers. And not bailing out the financial system has been pretty conclusively demonstrated to have ugly, ugly results...
Hey! You can quote me by name, you know...
